Hands-On Preview: Wuthering Waves 3.0

Since it first released in 2024, it's safe to say that Wuthering Waves has taken the free-to-play gaming space by storm. The number of contemporaries in the genre that require no monetary investment to fully enjoy while still saturating a player with a metric ton of content to enjoy regardless is... well, a very low number.

Of course, if you've played the 1.0 or 2.0 versions of the game since launch, you already know this. Kuro Games has done a pretty insane job to this point of cramming their world full of content that you can work through for dozens upon dozens of hours as you play as your favorite collection of Resonators within the game, of which there are already over 40 to choose between.

Last week, I was able to go hands-on with a pre-release build of the 3.0 update, We Who See The Stars, before it goes live worldwide on Christmas Day, December 25th. This event took place in downtown Los Angeles, just a block or so from The Game Awards, where Wuthering Waves would end up taking home the award for Player's Choice at the show.

If what I was able to experience of 3.0 was any evidence, these players that already love the title will have a lot to look forward to once Santa drops it off below the Christmas Tree. Let's dive in to what I was able to experience first-hand with this looming, huge update to one of the best free-to-play experiences out there.

School-Based Story Content

My time with Wuthering Waves 3.0 started off in Startorch Academy, which served as the hub for my experience with anything story-related I saw in my preview. This super sci-fi, super visually striking location was bustling with NPCs, fellow students, and quest markers to chase down.

As a long-time, well-documented Persona lover, seeing Wuthering Waves in this school setting immediately felt intriguing, cozy, and strangely familiar to me despite being all new content. I had a great time simply looking around this area, and vibing hard to the music throughout.

In the slice of the narrative that I got to experience, I listened to and engaged with tons of dialogue sequences, which had me completely locked-in the whole time. In fact, I was so locked-in that I'd completely missed the note on my desk at the preview event suggesting that I skip through some of the dialogue just to ensure there was ample time for me to see all of the new gameplay bits that Kuro was eager to show off to me.

Luckily, I still wound up with time to work through the rest of the demo in my timeslot, but I think it's a testament to the story I've seen of 3.0 so far that I just didn't want to skip anything either. The characters were charming, including a standout performance from S.I.G.M.A., the academy's resident robot who is obsessed with motorbike safety and was sure to grill my party about the rules of the road before allowing me to jump onto my new motorbike for the first time. Speaking of which...

The (Fully Customizable) Motorbike And Radio

Perhaps the one new thing from 3.0 that Kuro was most eager to show off to us at the preview event was the addition of the motorbike to the game. Honestly, I totally understand why, because it's pretty incredible. In such vast worlds to explore in video games, having a fun means of traversal is paramount to the experience, and Wuthering Waves now has its steel steed to get the job done.

Once available to me in the preview, I went through a tutorial section of sorts on the motorbike, cruising down a long, expansive highway that stretched as far as the eye could see throughout the new area of Lahai-Roi. There are also new camera modes added into the game for when you're on the bike, including a sort of autopilot feature that allows you to toggle on a cinematic mode so you're sure to be able to take in all the sights as you drive around the world.

For me, however, I preferred controlling the bike myself, because it really feels great, and comes complete with boost, jumping, and additional mechanics to make your Point A to Point B journeys much more dynamic and enjoyable from now on. After spending enough time with the motorbike in the game, I won't be surprised if players wonder how we ever got along without the motorbike in previous Wuthering Waves iterations. It really is awesome.

Additionally awesome is the radio station that now pops up when you ride the motorbike, allowing you to customize the music you're listening to every step of the way. For me, this was an awesome feature since Wuthering Waves boasts an absolutely amazing soundtrack. Extra attention to detail here to highlight the jams is a great touch.

You'll also be able to customize the bike, adding color swaps and details to specific areas of it to get it looking exactly how you prefer. I didn't have a ton of options to mess around with in the preview, but still enjoyed making it half metallic gold and half navy blue as an homage to my Indiana Pacers.

Lastly, Kuro has added in the feature to have another party member hop on the back of the bike with you, which leads to unique dialogue between your characters. These moments change based on the duo you choose to put on the motorbike, meaning there are tons of new lines and nice, specific encounters to uncover between your favorite Resonators. From a role-playing perspective, this is a feature I imagine many fans will come to love.

New In-World Events And Mini-Games In Multiple New Areas

Beyond the scope of adding in what seems like a ton of new story content and the super cool motorbike, Wuthering Waves 3.0 is also bursting at the seams with new events, mini-games, and areas to explore. What's more, there's also now the ability to customize the current weather in the game with the press of the button, so you can experience these areas in precisely the vibe you prefer.

The new world of Lahai-Roi seems dynamic, varied, and vast. I only got to see a portion of what will ultimately be on offer here, but there are nine different locations/biomes present in 3.0 that all seem to offer plenty to do and experience as you simply take in the beauty of this new world around you.

The map is highly populated with things like stargazing events, races and competitions on the motorbike, new puzzles called Smartprint Cubes, little Korok-like creatures to hunt down, and wave-based enemy encounters with unique combinations of mini-bosses at the end. Simply put, there is a lot to do in the world, and it really seems like 3.0 is going to be jam-packed with things to keep players busy with nonstop.

And of course, all of this, combined with the addition of the motorbike to get you from Event A to Mini-Game B, makes everything all the more enjoyable. I really can't stress how continually impressed I am that Wuthering Waves manages to put so much available content into the game without hiding anything behind a predatory paywall. You'll have no shortage of things to do in 3.0, and all for free, if you choose.

Plenty Of New Enemies, Echoes, Resonators, And Combat Options

Of course, with a new, massive update to Wuthering Waves also comes the addition of new Resonators, abilities, weapons, and combat experiences. I got to spend time with Lynae and Mornye, both of whom felt awesome in the heat of the battle. Lynae specifically was also heavily featured in the story content I got to experience, and without giving anything away, seems to be playing a major, interesting role in how everything will unfold in 3.0.

She also is simply a joy to have on screen whenever she's there, frequently stealing the show with her big personality, fun one-liners, and outstanding collection of motorbike tickets and infractions that S.I.G.M.A. was sure to pester her about near the garage of the academy.

Both Lynae and Mornye are five-star Resonator options, so either of the two will be high-tier additions to the collection of Resonators within the game. As such, you can expect to get a lot of use out of them in combat. Both were fun and fluid to control, with Lynae's special ability of launching her motorbike at enemies being particularly impressive.

In practice, I personally found myself swapping in Mornye a bit less frequently into battle, because her moveset is a bit more ranged, and not what I typically gravitate to in Wuthering Waves as a Soulslike fan who just wants to dodge and punish with melee attacks till the cows come home. Still, once I'm able to spend more time learning her moveset when 3.0 is properly released, I'm sure she'll become a worthy addition to the party.

As you'd expect, there are also plenty of new enemies and bosses to encounter in 3.0, which means new echo skills to unlock as well. In my preview, I was able to challenge one boss the team wanted to show off to me, as well as a couple of mini-bosses that came at the conclusion of a couple of wave encounters I bumped into out in the open world.

If you know the combat of Wuthering Waves already, you know that it more than holds its own, particularly for a title that also has to seamlessly work on mobile devices as well. Every enemy encounter I had in my 3.0 preview was great, and I really enjoyed learning new boss movesets to perfectly time my dodges and counter-attacks to come out victorious in some of the more hard-fought battles I had.

As always, the combat loop of using your cooldown skills and swapping between characters for their entrance/exit moves feels awesome, and really sets Wuthering Waves apart from other competitors in similar spaces. If you know, you know, but this is hands-down one of the best feeling games in the free-to-play market in terms of combat, and 3.0 seems to only be making things even better.

There's also the entirely new Off-Tune Combat Mechanic, which adds yet another additional layer to Wuthering Waves' already extremely deep collection of powers and abilities within battle.

Why I'm Excited To Dive In On Christmas

Truth be told, while I was familiar with Wuthering Waves going into this preview event, I'm also not someone that's sunk dozens upon dozens of hours into the game to this point. I've played and enjoyed some aspects of 1.0, but as a Games Journalist, there's always something else on the horizon to dive into and cover before I've sometimes had a chance to fully experience something as much as I'd typically prefer.

Wuthering Waves has been one such example of this for me, perhaps because the free-to-play nature made me feel like I could always leave the game and come back much later without feeling like there was an investment I was wasting by walking away from something I'd spent money on.

The Kuro Games team present was keen to suggest new players simply jump into 2.0 to prepare for 3.0, but also that 3.0 was aimed to capture new/less-experienced players as well as WuWa veterans alike. This is a great approach, and really has me feeling like Christmas is finally the right time for me to go all-in on the game myself as we wait for the slate of 2026 video games to reveal itself.

I'd already liked what I'd experienced with Wuthering Waves before 3.0, but after spending time in Lahai-Roi, meeting classmates in Startorch Academy, cruising around on the motorbike while listening to the banging soundtrack, and partaking in all the new content crammed into every nook and cranny of the map, I'm personally very ready for more.

It seems like 3.0 is going to be the update that gets me to commit 100% to Wuthering Waves, and I expect I won't be the only player to have this same feeling once everyone else is able to go hands-on with it. Returning players and diehard fans have tons of new content to dive into, and new/lesser experienced players now have what seems to be the ideal entry point as well.